Look Into My Eyes...

Can you hypnotise a corporate manager into giving his best? Put him in a trance so that he bursts forth with creative ideas. Sounds a mesmerising idea, right? Well, Santhosh Babu is trying to do just that.

The long-haired, bearded Babu has already experimented with managers in companies like NTPC, Ulka, and SAIL. And he claims that his ideas have worked sometimes too well for the comfort of these companies. For instance, after attending his workshop some managers at NTPC were motivated enough to resign from their jobs and look for greener pastures abroad!

All I did was to help them set their goals, says this corporate Mandrake. With his long locks, gleaming eyes and glib talk, Babu looks just the epitome of a hypnotist. All that is missing is the magic wand. But no, this environmentalist (Babu holds a full time job with the World Wide Fund for Nature) claims theres no mumbo jumbo or abracadabra involved in his workshops. Indeed he himself learnt hypnosis as part of an atheist movement to expose so-called miracles in villages. What I practise is a mixture of traditional Indian sciences and modern psychology, claims Babu.

 

According to him, most creative ideas only happen in the dream state where apparently alpha waves rather than beta dominate. Stretching his argument, Babu points out, Archimedes was relaxing in a bathtub when he hit upon his buoyancy theory; Newton was sitting under a tree and munching an apple when the gravitational theory occurred to him. Einstein was a dreamer...

Ideally Babu likes to conduct two-day workshops, as he did for NTPC a year ago, for which he charges about Rs 20,000. He has also done workshops for the Ghaziabad Management Association, and for the students of IIT and JNU.

The first half of his workshop is devoted to exposing the managers false egos (everyone has a thats me image, says Babu) and conjuring up their real image before them. Basically I bash them up a little, twinkles Babu. In the second half, Babu teaches the managers self-hypnosis, whereby they themselves can fall into a trance. By way of demonstration he selects a few and sends them into a dream state. He may even send a post-hypnotic suggestion enabling them to repeat it on their own accord later.

At the end of the first day, Babu asks the managers to go home and pen down the goals they have set for themselves and to list their priorities. The next morning he analyses these. In most cases he finds that the goals have not been achieved either because they are conflicting ones or because the manager has not been willing to sacrifice anything to achieve this. Babu then helps them remove these mental blocks through hypnosis. I project a picture of what they are and what they want to be, says the corporate healer. He also builds up their egos by teaching them to adopt confident body postures.

But by far the most common problem that Babu has encountered among corporates is stress, for which he claims self-hypnosis is the best remedy. So what exactly does happen when you fall into a trance? Isnt it scary? C Asokan, manager, corporate planning, NTPC, who attended the workshop with his wife describes it as a very relaxing experience. Although the workshop has not dramatically changed his life, unlike some of his colleagues who left their jobs, he admits that it has helped him by teaching him to relax in stressful situations. Asokan admits rather sheepishly, Actually one has to practise it regularly for which you need persistence. I only do it occasionally.

Babu himself realises the limitations of two-day workshops, the effects of which, like hypnosis, wear off rather quickly. So his latest brainwave is to have holiday camps, ideally in game parks. For, as he says, he can also put his environment knowledge to good use here. I can take them on long walks early in the morning and both educate them on nature as well as help them meditate. Since most companies have paid holiday schemes anyway, why not extend this and pack in a little knowledge as well, suggests Babu.

But how is Babu different from Pranic healers or the proponents of Reikei who have their own brand of corporate followers? Unlike Pranic healing which believes there is an aura around everybody, or Reikei which claims to harness an external power, I do not claim to harness any energy, says Babu. Anyone can learn self-hypnosis, provided they are serious and willing.

Just twenty-nine, Babu has already led quite a chequered life. During his college days in Kerala he learnt hypnosis mainly to educate villagers that miracles do not happen. But he soon quit the atheist movement when he discovered better uses for his new found skill. At that time several hospitals in Kerala were experimenting with hypnotherapy to treat psychosomatic disorders. Babu worked as a volunteer and very soon set up a consultation room of his own where he did therapy free of cost. Since I was doing stage shows I could afford to do it, he grins.

From there Babu went to Bhutan, thanks to a sudden irrational urge to visit the Himalayan kingdom. He took up the job of a primary school teacher in a remote village and literally lived the life of a hermit. But when the school was shut down he was forced to shift base to the capital Thimpu where he picked up a job with the Royal Society for Protection of Nature. So on returning to India, it was logical for him to apply to the WWF, where he now works as a programme officer conducting teacher training workshops.

Although Babu has set out to be a corporate healer, he actually nurses a secret ambition to instill the killer instinct in Indian sportsmen. He tried this briefly on a Bhutanese football team where he claims he hypnotised a player into scoring a key goal. Ever since, he has been itching to try out this technique on an Indian side. This is my challenge. Give me any sports team for three months and I will turn out a winning side. I am willing to do this experiment free of cost, says Babu.

He may or may not achieve his goal. Meanwhile, corporate managers are all too willing to be bewitched by Babu.